The ASL Parent-Child Mother Goose
Program produced through the Ontario Cultural
Society of the Deaf in Canada in 2004 serves as
an excellent example of how parents can 'sing'
rhymes to a baby or a toddler without any reliance
on audible sound. The DVD includes Christine
Spink-Mitchell performing as the Mother Goose
with Shannon Pollock and Mario Pizzacalla as the
accompanying hosts. These deaf performers
demonstrate the reality of rhymes and rhythms in a
different modality, that is, signed, yet comparable,
in principle, to what is known for the spoken form.
A formal definition for the visually enthralling and
enriching ASL pieces in the DVD has been
provided as follows:
Rhymes are ASL poems that have repeated
handshapes, movements, location or
repetition of how the palms face. Rhythms
occur when the pacing of the motions in
ASL poems recur and form a pattern. ASL
rap can be a combination of rhymes and
rhythms. (McLaughlin, Small, Spink-Mitchell,
& Cripps, 2004, p. 19)
For the purchase of the ASL Parent-Child
Mother Goose Program, please go to the link of the
Deaf
Culture
Centre’s
bookstore
at
https://deafculturecentre.ca/shop/the-asl-parent-
child-mother-goose-program/.
References
McLaughlin, L., Small, A., Spink-Mitchell, C., & Cripps, J.
(2004). A parent guidebook: ASL and early literacy.
Mississauga, ON: Ontario Cultural Society of the
Deaf.
Ontario Cultural Society of the Deaf. (2004). The ASL parent-
child mother goose program: American Sign
Language rhymes, rhythms and stories for parents
and their children [DVD]. Mississauga, ON: Ontario
Cultural Society of the Deaf Project.
The Power of ASL
12
Summer 2018 – Issue 10